Requiem and last goodbyes
by myanko92
Summary: It had happened so fast, and now she had to say her last goodbyes...


_The setting is AU, where Ichigo has no powers and life is ordinary. The class has all graduated and gone on to college and jobs. Orihime and Tatsuki have stayed in Karakura and are going to its community college, while Ichigo has gone on to America to study. Life goes on like normal until..._

_I think this story would be even better if read while listening to "Love Me" by Yiruma._

_Please imagine this story as beginning at night._

_**Disclaimer:** Bleach and its characters belong to Kubo Tite_

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She never heard nor saw the car at all; but she did hear Tatsuki scream her name.

'

Moments later she was hovering above it all, watching as if from some great distance while Tatsuki wailed in anguish over the body—was that really her body? and was she really dead?—and then screamed her name, over and over, going hoarse as she struggled wildly with the paramedics and the police as they tried to calm her, while the ambulance quietly took away the white-shrouded form of the broken, bloody body that had been hers so little a time ago.

She saw her meaningless attempts to follow continue for a while longer, only to finally end in her falling to her knees in mindless grief, tears streaming down her cheeks. She came to her then, brows furrowed in gentle empathy, kneeling unseen beside her, wiping away the unending, silent tears with see-through fingers, marveling as they left each drop untouched on its descent.

She waited beside her, knees drawn up to her chest and arm draped around her friend's slumped shoulders, until her parents came, with concerned expressions and soft murmurs of consolation, to bring her home. And then she embraced her with heart and whole being full of grateful love, whispering one last, quiet, _"Thank you,"_ before slipping gently past.

'

Then she floated upon the wind, drifting from place to place and from person to person, reliving memories—oh how many of them there were!—and bidding soft farewells to all.

There were so many beautiful places, and so many wonderful people,that she couldn't count them all. They had made her life a happy one, and so she was grateful to each and every one of them. She might not remember all of them—she was sure she was forgetting a few—but she tried, very hard, to remember them and to thank them, one last time. She had had so many fun and wonderful times with them all! And she loved them all so much…!

The park she had always swung at in the evening, while the sun set in glories of orange and purple; Himawari Haberdashery Karakura, and her favorite clerk, whom she had come to know so well; the cake shop she always visited to drool at the Western-style cakes and the Japanese-style sweets they displayed so enticingly; A B Cookies, where she had enjoyed so many hours serving—and sampling!—and Taichou-san, who had been so very kind to her; and the other girls who worked there, with whom she had had so many fun times of chatter and laughter; the ever-friendly clerks at Hirokhyaku Supermarket; her landlady, who always took such good care of her, to the point of occasionally bringing over food; the grandparent couple in the apartment on her left, always talking about how pretty she was getting; the middle aged salaryman on the right who greeted her whenever he saw her; the girls she had made friends with from her college classes; the kind teachers, who gave her such good advice; Chizuru-chan, who always greeted her so enthusiastically; Ryou-chan and Mahana-chan and Michiru-chan…

'

She saved her closest friends—if she had to pick "closest" friends—till the last. Sado-kun, so busy with his job and boxing lessons; Ishida-kun, always looking out for her and making new and interesting designs to sew; Tatsuki-chan she had already said goodbye to… And so at last she came to… _him_.

He stood there, so tall and strong, expression neutral and maybe a bit tired as he waited for the light to change at the crosswalk. The difference in time zones meant that while Japan was still enveloped in night, the streets of America were bright with the sun, and she could clearly see the orange of his hair, the deliberately untame spikes she had always secretly longed to touch.

Ahh, she had loved him, when she had lived. She loved him still. But he hadn't known, or realized, her love when she had been alive, and he would never know, now. He did not, could not, even see her now. She continued to watch him, hovering in the air a little above and to the side of him, studying his face—the strong forehead, the furrowed brows, the straight nose, the determinedmouth, the firm chin… She thought, with a brief pang, that she would've liked to have been kissed by him, held by him; to have been married by him and borne his children… but that was not to be. She could only sigh a kiss onto his hair, and a small, brief one onto his lips, before, unseen and unfelt, wrapping him in her arms and pouring all her love onto him like a benediction, and then finally, contentedly, letting herself be dispersed on the spring wind.

.

.

He looked up without knowing why, suddenly feeling her presence surround him.

_Inoue—?_

There was a sweet feeling around him, filling him, and he was suddenly, strangely, at peace, more than he had ever been before in his life. It was so sweet, and he closed his eyes to feel it better, before it eased away from him, slipping from him with one last touch like a ray of warm sunshine disappearing. Forever after, even after the fateful phone call, he would keep the memory of that feeling with him, as the memory of the warmth and gold of a sunbeam still lingers when the beam is gone, as well as the sense of holding something precious and unspeakable—sweetness, without the bitterness of loss.

.

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_Fin_

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_**A/N:** My first published, actual, story! (Well, oneshot, really.) I'm so happy! TvT_  
_I have further author's commentary in my dA journal._  
_Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review, comment, critique, etc... I welcome it all! Again, thank you so much for reading!_


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